


Inked

by insanestyles



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2014-06-25
Packaged: 2018-02-06 05:37:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1846309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insanestyles/pseuds/insanestyles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You sunk my battleship heart." </p><p>The world is a place of wondrous things, and one of them is tattoos. These tattoos appear on the skin naturally. Since their discovery, scientists have been working on the cause of them, but they've only hammered out a general idea of why they form. They've found that tattoos usually appear during significant times or events in a person's life, but, like anything, some people have more, and some have less.</p><p>Most importantly, this is a world where two people are brought together by some letters and pictures written on the skin in ink.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1

I heard Lia calling my name as I ran towards the front of the venue. "Maisie!" she called, and I knew she was right behind me, but I continued making my way towards the stage anyway. There was no way I was giving up a spot in the front row at a 5 Seconds of Summer gig.

In a few moments I heard Lia come up next to me. "This is it, Mais. We actually made it." 

I couldn't help but smile at her, and still in a giddy mood, I took in my surroundings. Chairs were everywhere on the floor. I saw wires coiled upon the stage, and a few mics standing only six-feet away from me. The giant snake-like black catwalk split the stadium in two, and it loomed directly in front of me. I knew that I was going to have an amazing view. I also knew that I was probably smiling like a ridiculous freak, but I couldn't help it. I was finally at a concert for a band that I had waited years to see headline their own tour.

We had gotten sound check tickets for tonight, and it wasn't too long before the band came out and about fifty of their fans anxiously awaited their performance and speeches. They set up chairs directly in front of their mics and introduced themselves, as if they needed introducing at their own concert.

Luke took the lead and jumped right into Amnesia. It was beautiful, but I was looking forward to Michael talking the most. He is my absolute favorite, and it's so corny, but he's one of the few people that can always make me feel better.

As always, my thoughts drifted off towards Michael throughout another couple of songs and some talking, signifying it was almost time for soundcheck to be over. This time though, my thinking was interrupted by the man of the hour himself: Michael Clifford. 

He was answering something that I didn't hear the question to. His hair was currently jet black and he laughed at something one of the other boys had said. His eyes crinkled up like a little anime character and it was a beautiful sight. I couldn't believe he was sitting six feet in front of me in real life.

It was then that I heard Ashton say, "Yeah, uh, the girl in the front with the cool sleeve." and look towards me. I knew he unmistakably meant Lia, as she had a full sleeve tattoo on her arm, even though I hadn't realized that Lia had even been raising her hand. 

She was beaming at the boys on the stage and her face tinged pink. "Uh, hi. I just wanted to ask how you guys are." Lia paused, then continued, "And I wanted to ask you about your tattoos. I know some of them are kind of personal, but any new editions?"

At the first mention of tattoos, I subconsciously looked down at my own arms. They were filled with mostly black-and-white tattoos, but there were some splashes of color here and there. My hands weren't all the way inked yet, but at the rate I was going I assumed they would be filled fairly quickly. My legs had larger designs that swirled down my thighs towards my calves, and my feet tattoos were shielded with Converse hightops. 

But, I hadn't felt a tingle of a new tattoo in about two weeks, which was really strange for me. This was because I was a sort of anomaly in the aspect of tattoos. For most people, tattoos only appear on the skin during important events in their lives, and trust me, some of mine have, but I've gotten a lot of random ones too. A lot of people only get four or five in their entire lifetime, and don't usually get any until puberty, but I watched my first tattoo form at five years old and have been getting them pretty consistently ever since.

As I looked at Lia's arm, I thought back to the reason we even became friends in the first place. I remembered being in elementary school and being made fun of for having tattoos already, and Lia being there with her tattoo, ready to comfort me. We've been pals ever since.

My thoughts were again interrupted when she nudged me with her colorful elbow. "Maisie," she whispered, "Calum is talking to you." 

At the mention of anyone talking to me, I whipped my head towards the supposed speaker. I saw four boys looking my way, expecting an answer, and I realized that I didn't have one. "Uh, I'm sorry." I stammered. "I was daydreaming."

I directed my statement towards Calum, as Lia said he had directed his question towards me, and I found him smiling at my response. "That's okay. Your friend asked about our tattoos, but none of us have any new ones, so I asked about yours. You seem to have a lot."

"Oh." I knew I was blushing and that my face probably matched my bright red hair. "I uh, I haven't gotten a new one in a while, which is pretty weird for me."

"Well, like I said, you definitely have us beaten on the tattoo spectrum. How many do you have?" This time it was Michael who was speaking. 

I could feel my cheeks flush with even more color. "Last count I was up to 86." 

"Damn." I saw Michael look toward his own arms. "I thought that I had a lot, but I only have 58." 

Then it seemed in the blink of an eye the conversation was quickly turned towards saying their goodbyes until the actual show started later that evening. Nevertheless, I was absolutely buzzed. I watched as each boy picked up their instruments and start to walk off the stage. 

Michael left last, and I, just like the fifty others in the stadium, watched him with utmost attention. I was no different than anybody else who was in the building. 

Then, he turned to wave to the crowd and lingered for several moments. I saw him look in my direction, and at first I couldn't believe that he was smiling at me, but still I made eye contact and started to smile back. Suddenly, he averted his gaze. I immediately felt awkward and like I wanted to dig myself a hole and die in it.

But before I fainted from embarrassment, I realized that he was looking at his arm with both wonder and confusion. At this point many people started filtering out of the venue, but I seemed to be frozen. I knew what his look was for.

And when I started to tell Lia, I felt something prickly on my own arm. 

It was the unmistakable tingle of new ink forming. I was almost relieved that I was getting another tattoo, as I was starting to think maybe my tattoo days were over. However, that relief was quickly engulfed by confusion. 

Why was I getting a tattoo now? They almost never happened in public places, and especially not in front of people I have never met before. 

More questions came to mind, but I felt someone's gaze on my back. I looked up to find Michael staring at me with an unreadable expression on his face. He pointed to his arm, and then to mine. 

All I could do was nod while he motioned for a security guard to escort me backstage, where he signed for me to meet him. 

I walked with the man and Lia towards a door that clearly led to the other side of the stage and tried to clear my thoughts, but the voice in my head was screaming only one thing at me:

I had just gotten a tattoo when I made eye contact with Michael Clifford.

And better yet, he had gotten one too.


	2. 2

The security guard led us through the door. We came face to face with the guy that I had been longing to meet for years, except in this moment I was dreading it. 

"Uhh, hi. I'm Michael." The black-haired boy awkwardly rubbed the back of his head with one hand and gave a little wave with the other.

I registered that some type of "Hi. Nice to meet you." came out of Lia's mouth. "I'm Lia."

"I uh, I'm Maisie." I stuttered. 

Michael gave a small smile. "Do you mind if I talked to you for a sec?" He motioned over to the side of the area.

I nodded. "Maisie," Lia whispered as Michael started walking away, "I'll be waiting for you right here." 

At that, I nodded again and followed Michael a little ways away.

"Maisie, is it?" 

"Yeah... Look, Michael-" I started, trying to justify what had just happened. 

I clearly looked nervous and frazzled, because Michael interrupted me. "No, no. It's okay. You don't have to try to explain anything. I know this is really weird."

I nodded and he continued, "But something did happen right? I'm not crazy?"

"No," I began, "something did happen. I just, uh, don't really know what. Nothing like that has ever happened to me before."

Michael ran his hands through his hair. "Uh, do you want to come somewhere with me? I have someone that might know what's going on... I can have my guard take your friend to one of our dressing rooms to wait if you'd like."

"Sure, that'd be perfect." 

I explained the situation to Lia and she went with the guard, which left Michael and I alone.

"Okay Maisie, I'm going to introduce you to Calum. If that's okay with you, that is." He smiled. "The guy is obsessed with tattoos and reads all sorts of stuff on them. Maybe he knows something about what we just went through."

It was at this point that my thoughts drifted and I wondered what had actually formed on Michael's arm. I thought about what had appeared on mine: the outline of a tiny, black-and-white guitar. There were endless possibilities on what it could mean, but I had a feeling that I would understand better once I saw Michael's.

As we were walking backstage, I noticed him looking at his arm. "I know it's personal, but I figured, you know, based on what just happened, what did you just get?"

Michael looked up in surprise, clearly lost in his thoughts. "Uhh, yeah. Um, it says B6. Any idea what that means?"

I immediately knew what it meant. "Uhh-"

"Hey, Calum!" Michael interrupted, as he had spotted him down the end of the hall we were now in. "I want to introduce you to Maisie."

Michael touched my back gently and nudged me forward. "Hey." was all I could muster, as I was now embarrassed yet again.

"Hi, Maisie. We just saw you at soundcheck. Nice to see you again." 

He gave me a smirk while Michael breathed, "We need your help."

The smirk still on his lips, he said, "How may I be at your service?"

"Well," Michael glanced at me, "something happened at the end of soundcheck... Something that you might know about."

Calum raised his eyebrows. 

Michael cleared his throat. "Uhh, well, we kind of got tattoos at the same time."

I nodded, too embarrassed to even add anything to that. 

"And," Michael looked towards the ground, "I think it happened when I looked at her."

Calum started to speak, but I interrupted him. "I got mine when I made eye contact with Michael, yeah. It definitely happened then."

I looked straight ahead at Calum to avoid Michael's gaze. Calum's eyes flitted between the two of us. 

"Are you serious?"

This time, I glanced at Michael. We made eye contact again, and he slowly nodded. 

I looked back to Calum and met his gaze, and I took that as my initiative to speak. "That's right."

Calum's eyes widened. 

"WHAT?"


End file.
